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'''Gulf Power Company''' is a regional utility that provides electric service ten electricity to retail customers in 8 counties in the Northwest Florida Panhandle. The company also provides wholesale electricity to parts of Jackson County. It is a subsidiary of the [[Wikipedia:Southern Company|Southern Company]].
Gulf Power's corporate headquarters are located at [[One Energy Place]] in the [[Hawkshaw]] neighborhood along [[Pensacola Bay]].
[[Susan Story]] has been president and CEO of Gulf Power since [[2003]].
The Gulf Power Company was organized on [[October 29]], [[1925]] as a subsidiary of the Southeastern Power & Light holding company, serving areas east of Pensacola. After acquiring the assets of the [[Chipley Light & Power Company]], it became an operating public utility on [[February 6]], [[1926]]. Southeastern merged its two Northwest Florida subsidiaries in May [[1927]], keeping the Gulf Power name. The company initially had 7,366 customers.
On [[September 6]], 1926, a [[Hurricane of 1926|hurricane]] made landfall near Pensacola. The plant at Barracks and Main was battered by 120 mph winds and lost one of its stacks before the 9.5-foot [[storm surge]] finally extinguished the boilers. Southeastern sent 600 workers from Gulf Power's sister companies to replace the thousands of rotting chestnut poles that had been wrecked by the storm, and full electric service was restored more than two months later on [[November 10]]. By year's end, a 110,000-volt line connected [[Flomaton]] to Pensacola via a substation in [[Brentwood]]; the [[Wikipedia:Allis-Chalmers|Allis-Chalmers]] steam generator at the Main Street plant was put on standby, and Gulf Power would rely on imported energy for the next 39 years.
In [[1929]], Southeastern Power & Light merged with a New York-based Hodenpyl, Hardy & Company, forming a new parent company called Commonwealth & Southern. Gulf Power deemed the streetcar system they had inherited from the Pensacola Electric Company a money-losing endeavor and discontinued service in [[1931]]; those assets were eventually sold to [[Pensacola Transit, Inc.]] in [[1945]]. The 1930s saw expansion of electrical service to rural areas of the Florida Panhandle, despite the financial hard times of the [[Depression]], and by [[1939]] Gulf Power had 17,555 customers.
The [[Pensacola Steam Plantgenerating facility]] (later named for company president [[James F. Crist]]) brought its first generating unit on-line on [[January 1]], [[1945]], with a capacity of 22,500 kilowatts. Meanwhile, Commonwealth & Southern had been dissolved in compliance with the [[Wikipedia:Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935|Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935]], and in [[1947]] Gulf Power was acquired (along with three other former C&S subsidiaries) by the recently incorporated [[Wikipedia:Southern Company|Southern Company]].
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==Rates==
Gulf Power has a monopoly on electric utilities in the Northwest Florida area, and as such its Company's prices are regulated set by the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), which must approve all any rate decreases or increases. Gulf Power current rates are well below the national average.
==External links & references==
